Baylor University - Round Up Yearbook (Waco, TX)

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.1 .equi 5 13' s ' gig. ge. no uND - UP g -1916 clover, the maiden wah-wah-Tee, daughter of the Chief of the Huecos, wandered far afield from the Big Spring and gathered the blue flowers away up on the banks of the Brazos. With her trained ear, she heard the rustling of the leaves near her. When she saw a brave of the Apache Tribe slyly creeping to her side, she started to steal from the place like a frightened doe, because he was of a foreign tribe. But it was Springtime, and the Indian maiden had been dreaming dreams and he came as the embodiment of her lougings, and so she wavered. The Brave knew the value of speed and before the afternoon shadows were long, Wah-Wah-Tee, the Hueco maid, had prom- ised to meet the Apache on the cliff at the junction of the Bosque and Brazos. Fleet of foot the maiden sped home and with her head full of her new love asked neither for food nor counsel. lteafeiied with her own emotions, she heard not the om- nious quiet which betokened the preparations for the coming danger. She did not realize that the Apaches were over on the East side and at any moment might cross the river, nor did she see the wary guard that noted her stealtliy flight from the camp of ber father. Light of foot, she sped like a frightened deer until she was close beside her brave. The Apache knew that they must haste to the camp of his brothers and so they found their way up to the Bosque woods. In the meantime, the guard, following Wah-Wah-Tee. had seen the meeting of the lovers, and returning told the father of the daughters duplicity. and thereupon the Huecos followed in quick pursuit, When the lovers saw that they had been discovered, without a moment's hesitation, brave in death as in life. they sprang from the cliff into the maddened torrents below. An eddying current cast them ashore, still in love's embrace, near the spot where first the Apache wooed the little Hueco maid. It is said now that when the river rages below. when the Indian can hang his shaft of arrows on the new moon. and when the air is heavy with the fragrance of the buffalo clover, that one may see on the cliff the flitting figures of a youth and maid. Well does the spot deserve the name of Lover's Leap and many are the visits made thitherward to relieve in all but its tragic ending. the fate of the red-faced lovers who loved just as passionately as do the pale-faces . And always the lovers shed a tear of sympathy over the fate of the Indian maid and her brave. Beside the Big Spring, the springs ol the present Cameron Park must have been an added cause for the selection of Waco as a settlement for the Indians. Should the latter chance upon their Upper Springs, as the springs in the present park were called, much would be unfamiliar to them. The art of the landscape gardener has added to the natural charm. The Hueco Maids own trail from the Big Spring to the Bosque has been transformed into a driveway where passage is made more quickly than even on the fleetest of ponies. Where the Huecos were wont to row their canoes across the Brazos, four bridges connect East Waco with the city proper. The Suspension Bridge is interesting as being an unusually long single span bridge and as having once been a toll bridge. By yet another link we are bound to the natives, for we have perpetuated another of their landmarks. .lust as their fortifications were necessarily for self-protection to 14

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the Indians, so is the public school essential to us today and. as if decreed by fate, our splendid High School stands today where in earlier days stood the rude but efficient fort of the tribe. Major George Erath has the distinction of being the first white settler of the the Indian village-he having been stationed here in 1837. A little later the town of Waco was laid off with the main street beginning at the spring and soon running into the trail of the cow-boys. Today one can wend his way down a crowded street for five miles westward and three eastward from the never-failing Spring. On this magnificent thoroughfare stand thriving storts of eyery kind, indicative of the demands of the large population: the magnificent Amicable Building proving by the selection of Waco as its site. that the city is not only il State but a Southern metropolis: splendid hotels that testify to the large number of travelers xx ho have intercourse with the city: yet a little further out stand the Public Library and many churches, each a token of culture: still further OIII do the comfortable homes iii-iicate to us the character of the citizens. To the north and south of the main street, one can find repetitions and additions of that which adorns the principal street. Even as a pioneer. was Baylor University founded and gathered strength with the years, she stands today as a monument to the city and its people. Very lil-tely on the same trails that guided the Indians to their settlement, the tracks of four railroads now lead into Waco. Although the whites drove out the natives from their fair camping grounds, the spirit of the Indians seems to hover over the land and breathe an indefinable charm anti ever call their successors in the possession of the Big Spring to be invincible. QU I6 RO UN I5 9T! E 3g..iQSfififf2.f